Infinity Is My Affinity?!?-Chapter 107: Initiative Has To Be Yours
My brain couldn’t process the sheer impossibility of what I was looking at.
The headless goblin had just grown a brand new skull in less than three seconds.
While my physical flesh was completely falling apart from the inside out, Pookie over there had basically hit the reset button.
The fully regenerated behemoth locked its glowing yellow eyes onto me and unleashed a tidal wave of roaring fire straight across the chamber.
Sheer, unadulterated survival instinct overrode my failing nervous system. I didn’t calculate the math or balance the feeds. I instinctively dropped every drop of my available mana straight into my Time Affinity.
Through sheer instinct alone, I activated Temporal Step.
-Kzzzt!
Popping into existence on the beast’s left flank, I didn’t care how much mana had bled out of the Shotgun since I had stopped my mana feed into it, nor did I bother to properly aim. I just raised it and pulled the trigger.
-THARD!
The 9 pellets of the partially charged buckshot slammed into its green chest, caving in a crater of shattered ribs, bursting out a spray of dark blood in the air.
It was a devastating hit, but it didn’t blow clean through.
And Pookie didn’t even flinch.
Thick, pulsating veins erupted from the edges of its cratered chest, weaving the shredded meat back together and sealing the cavity in 2 seconds flat.
The beast spun around and unleashed another blinding stream of fire right at my new position.
"You have got to be kidding me!" I cursed aloud before glitching out of the way.
-Kzzzt!
Reappearing near the barricade, I immediately began routing 40 MP a second back into the shotgun, and the rest into Ice Reinforcement and Pricognition while my mind spun into an absolute panic.
That pain was punching straight past my absolute threshold.
[I can’t keep up!]
I blinked away from another wall of flames.
-Kzzzt!
Chopping off its head didn’t work. Blowing out its heart didn’t work.
And as the monster descended into absolute frenzy, it suddenly clicked in my pain-riddled brain.
It’s an honest to god monster in an honest to god dungeon...
It had to have a core.
Through gritted teeth, I shove 50 MP into my ocular skill right after teleporting away from another wave of flames.
The blinding flames instantly washed out into a flat, dead monochrome as Eyes of Relevance came online.
Forcing my eyes wide open, I scanned the charging beast.
[Found it!]
A single, glowing sphere of golden haze pulsed right at the center of Pookie’s stomach.
Cutting the mana flow from the eyes, I teleported again, right as the monster lunged at me, before shoving almost my entire capacity worth of mana into the shotgun.
And just as it maxed out at two hundred grams of Virtual Mass, I took aim and-
-THARD!
The fully charged buckshot tore straight through its abdominal wall, blasting the beast’s internal organs completely out the other side in a massive explosion of pulverized green gore, and the rupture of its core.
The roaring aura of fire instantly vanished.
The towering behemoth froze while its roaring fire vanished, swaying for a second before completely collapsing onto its back with a loud thud.
-Ding!
{Tier 2, Late-Stage, Hob Goblin slain.
700 EXP + 200% Bonus for killing an entity 1 Tier above rewarded
Total Exp Received: 1,400}
Every ounce of strength instantly drained out of my legs as I collapsed flat onto my back, along with the shotgun that clattered against the ground beside me.
I didn’t even care about the horde outside anymore.
The exact second I stopped circulating mana, the blinding agony slowly began to dial back into a deep, nauseating throb. Without the mana actively tearing through my cells, the pain was finally manageable at least.
I closed my burning eyes, wanting to just lie flat on the ground even if for a little while.
[Maybe... I’ll just take a nap...]
The deep throb in my body was already shifting into a static numbness, feeling exactly like a dead limb waking up. And just as my mind went blank into a sleep-
-Ding!
{Ill-advised.
Monsters may spawn in this very chamber, and you will be trapped between two hordes.
One in here and the other on the other side of the wall.}
"What do you mean, spawn right here?" I asked with pure annoyance.
-Ding!
{The Dungeons can be considered sentient magical labyrinths that react to foreign threats, while the monsters inside act as their immune system.
It can spawn monsters anywhere within itself based on the threat presented to it.
Your rampant slaughter of the goblins since this morning is probably what caused the Dungeon to spawn that Hobgoblin. After all, it was not there in the cavern you kited that horde from.}
"Is that right?" I said with narrowed eyes. "You seem to have been hiding a lot of important shit from me, System... is this your stupid anime way to encourage character development of sorts... like turning me into your perfect little battle-hardened Destined Hero?"
-Ding!
{No.
Host, your lack of even the most basic research is what caused this.
Had you read even the most basic of books on Adventuring, Dungeons, or Magecraft, you would know the nature of Dungeons.
You would know about Mage’s Folly: the condition you’re in right now.
You would know about Multi-Cast; it’s what you’ve been doing with your magic, to which I must give you credit for having figured it out by yourself and without prior context.
Host, make no mistake. I am obligated to answer all your queries truthfully and with the best of my abilities...
But I am not obligated to coddle your hand every step of the way.
The initiative has to be yours.}
I lay there completely speechless for a moment before letting out a heavy sigh.
"So now what?"
-Ding! 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎
{Recommendation: Purchase a bathtub full of hot water and a medical dropper.
Drop 0.02 mL of the Grade 2 Mana Potion you have into the tub, and soak in for 5 minutes.
Cost of the bathtub full of hot water and dropper: 34 Credits.
Would you like to make the purchase?}
"Yeah..." I muttered.
